~ From the Quill of Anne de Plume

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As someone who has been on both sides of the table, there are a few interesting expectations from literary studies that I have encountered as a student and as a teacher in the journey so far.

There are some people who expect us to have read all possible texts (novels and poems) that have been classified under ‘literary’ studies; to recite poems verbatim, to quote exact words, to define ‘story’, ‘plot’, ‘character’, as if literature is all about rote learning. As I look back, I realize I haven’t read even half of those ‘classic’ texts. I do not remember my own poems, forget memorizing the poems of Keats or Shelly or Whitman. Seniors from engineering disciplines at IIT tested me by asking if I had read a certain ‘remote’ ‘less-known’ Kant, Wittgenstein, Tagore, Dickens, Hardy. They could actually cite the exact page numbers. I usually had a puzzled look as a response. I have not been an avid reader, just been a focused reader.

There are another set of people who expect that students of literature can write love-letters and are ‘romantic’ by default. As I reflect back, I feel love and romance was not my profession, literature was. I perceived an “ideal” world that came alive only in my imagination and only through the characters in the texts that I read. I have written just one love-letter in life and that was during a love-letter writing competition of PG cult; but never won the prize. 🙂 I realized that there were far more intense love-letter writers from other disciplines than I could ever be.

There are a third set of people who expect us to be experts in CV analysis or to be great editors. As I read through some of my own writings, I realize how much I needed a CV analyst and a soft-skills trainer to train me in the art of marketing my work. So, what do students of literature actually do? If there are better ‘thinkers’, ‘writers’, ‘analysts’, ‘reviewers’, ‘soft-skills’ trainers or even ‘lovers’ than us, what have we been doing so far? A little something of everything or ‘much ado about nothing’? Living under borrowed titles? Or living as parasites/adjuncts in a robust tree of an institution? I hope the profession of literary experts is not getting limited to being bad critics or worse reviewers? I hope we are not an endangered profession like the clock-keepers or ‘Ghadi-babus’ of the 19th century, who dwindled away with the turn of the century after the invention of automatic clocks?

Well, I am in quest for the answers myself. Help me out, if you can.

Until then…. This piece of writing is in the ‘confessional’ literary vein.

I am amazed when people tell me ‘god is nowhere’. Sometimes, I too start speculating about the truth of the statement ‘god is nowhere’ when things do not go my way. Yesterday, an incident happened with us that shook us up from the ‘nowhere’ mode. After a long time, the adage that ‘god is now-here’ and not ‘nowhere’ got reinforced for me. With this event, it feels you just have to have the eyes to know and find the little acts of kindness that make human beings equivalent to god. Or perhaps, was it god in a human form?

Yesterday, we were meeting some of our students who are interning at College Station, Texas A&M. We all planned for a small party at Sonic. We all got into the car, planning to take pictures and drive around the college station area. The moment we came on the main street from their apartments, our car hit a bump and immediately the entire oil pan on the lower shaft of the body got damaged and started leaking all over. We could barely manage to drive for a few steps from Sonic (where we all were chilling out) to reach an automobile parts center called O’Reilley Auto Parts’ (they only sell parts, do not repair cars). The sales group went out of their way to find us a repair garage. They called up several numbers, but since it was already 6 PM on a Sunday and that too on a long weekend, every auto garage was closed in the town. We desperately needed to get back home. But, home (Denton) was a 4 hours drive from College Station. With the serious leaks in the car, it was near impossible to drive back. As visitors in a foreign land, we are usually very careful about keeping ourselves safe. We had a group of four students along with us and seriously did not want to trouble them with our woes. Needless, to say that they were inadvertently dragged along with us into the eye of the chaos. We both breathed deep and shared a look at each other which meant, “god if you are around, please help”. It was then that we all witnessed an immensely extraordinary act of kindness. The young sales person (a college student himself), stepped up to help us. We had a drive of four and half hours back from College Station to Denton. When he saw that we were helpless, needed to get back immediately, since Monday was a work day for us, he himself took to helping us out and got down to help mending the leaks. He checked the store shelves trying to find some way to give us a temporary mend that would last us home. He could only find metal seal patches and two gallons of engine oil to refill. From 6 PM until 9.30 PM he stayed with us, repairing, checking and adding metal seal patches time and again. It took 4 attempts to seal that big crack with 15 minutes of wait time for each attempt. Not only that, he allowed us (we were a group of five people) to wait inside the shop in air conditioning even after the shop had officially closed down at 8 PM. He asked us to wait inside and come out through the back door while the front glass entrance was locked up. However, the story does not end there. The greatest surprise was waiting for us for the end. He tried mending whatever he could in the oil pan, even while it had got dark, and instructed us to keep checking every half an hour if the engine oil was leaking or there was any fume in the engine. He asked us to refill the engine oil without letting the crank overflow, and finally after warning us not to continue driving at night if it was still leaking heavily, he packed up his ruck-sack and gave everyone (our students and Amit a hug), wished us to drive safe, and turned on the ignition keys of his Harley. Amit stopped him and offered him money, he denied! Just gave a smile, and rode off. We all were left staring at him in surprise.

I held my breath and later told Amit, “I did not know god rides a Harley”! We started driving back at 10.30 PM and reached back at 2 AM (our students were worried and did not want us to leave their place. But we needed to be back home because of the commitments here). We fogot to ask his name in our anxiety and he never told us his name. Just vanished riding his Harley into the dusk.

On retrospect, Amit says: “He looked as if he was on a mission to help us get home”.

A guest post from Satyanarayan who was a part of a relief team after the cyclone Phailin spelled a trail of havoc in Odisha. Not only crops and people were affected, but also animals and properties were ruthlessly damaged. Satya recounts his experience of being a part of a team that was completely managed by women activists.

Visiting the villages hit by cyclone Phailin and seeing fellow human beings suffer through nature’s calamity has been one of the most poignant experiences of my life until date (P.N: The photographs in this post are taken by me and may be reproduced with a link back to Anne de Plume’s blog ‘Iris’) . The Cyclonic storm named “Phailin” derived from the thai word called sapphirehas caused massive devastation in and around costal belt of Odisha, leaving lakhs of people homeless and in distress. Needless to say, the rosy-sounding name of Phailin was not that rosy for the people of Odisha that hit the coasts on 12 October 2013. The devastation was massive as it has brought flood along with it.

The cyclonic storm struck Gopalpur at midnight with a gushing speed of about 220 kmph and moved in same south west direction to costal belt of Andhra Pradesh namely Srikakulam, Ichapuram, Jharkhand, Bihar. Unlike 1999 cyclone, this time at least there was accurate and timely prediction done by Indian Meteorological Department leaving State Government authorities to plan and execute proper plan of action to deal with the cyclone. There was timely deployment of ODRAF, NDRAF (National Disaster Relief Action Force), Air force, Army and Navy. Yet, there was a lot more to be done and achieved than what was being done for people.

However, while the preventive measures were great and the media coverage of the event was extensive, television channels and national media completely forgot to cover the aftermath of the cyclone which was excessively damaging in the form of floods. The aftermath of the cyclone was massive flood, extensive damage to kutcha houses, large scale disruption of electrical and communication lines, disruption of rail and road traffic and of course potential threat of flying debris. Soon people started to commute with boats inside the city of Berhampur as no other mode of communication was possible. The massive devastation has paralyzed the entire rescue operation.

Coverage by local media like OTV and ETV played the only key role in understanding the aftermath of the cyclone and in developing plan of action to deal with such crisis.

Seeing the situation first hand along with a relief team, I kept on imagining that it is “far beyond human mind to comprehend the act of nature’s fury”.

I made a choice to be associated with the Sailashree Vihar Women’s Association, a voluntary organization to support the cause and stand up with those people caught in this tragedy. The reason being that a group of twenty-two homemakers, all women, were uniting in their efforts to collect relief materials and also spread sensitivity about the situation in Odisha by visiting homes and generating awareness. The enthusiasm and energy in this group was huge. The group planned meticulously and resolved to deliver the collected relief material to the appropriate places. They wanted to go to ground zero and work there even if for a day.

The ladies spread the message in the neighbourhood and started collecting relief materials from the local residents. Items were collected in form of clothes, biscuits, mixtures, poha mixed with gur, candle, match box, water pouch etc. They took the help of Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation in identifying the most impactful place of Ganjam district. Khalikote is the place that was chosen for distribution of relief material. They decided to travel to Sana Ghati and Badagora villages, some of the highly affected localities in Phailin. The relief material was to be distributed among 150 families in two villages.

Before traveling to the villages, all the ladies of the association sat together till midnight to make small packets, so as to streamline the distribution process and ensure that each family gets proper share of relief.

On the D-Day that is on 27 October 2013 early morning around 0630 AM around 8 women and a small group of 5-6 men assembled together to drive to our destination in two cars and one relief truck carrying the materials collected. On the way the relief van got some problem with its engine and it could not move further, there was immediate need of another relief van so that material could be shifted and reaching final destination. We were afraid because of many news pieces which reported that relief material were being looted on the way. By the time we reached Khalikote it was 0230 PM.

It was raining and the cloud was dense. There was absolute silence and the impact of devastation was felt. After reaching Khalikhote, we met with Mr Mishra, IIC (Inspector In-charge). The police advised us to first take appropriate permission from the Collector he advised us to meet with Mr Hanuman, Block Development Office. Someone advised us to leave the relief materials in the police station or with the village sarpanch who would ensure that the material are duly distributed. However, the women in our group protested and said that they would themselves like to distribute the material to the people who needed and would ensure that the relief reached those who are affected. We were advised to take police help in order to avoid any untoward situation. Mr. Hanuman took the permission of the Collector and he agreed to the distribution of relief and assigned a platoon of police force for smooth coordination and to control any kind of unforeseen situation if they arise. The situation was clearly tensed in the villages, because people were living in utter darkness (without electricity) for days now.

The police van with a loud-speaker announced the relief distribution program to villagers who slowly came out of their homes near the van. It was probably one of the most intense and heart-touching experiences of our life. Entire villages were under water and there were neither roads nor any other amenity available, paddy cultivation completely ripe and ready to be harvested were destroyed, and the anger and frustration on the faces of people were clearly visible. A place that they called their home, was washed away by the fury of nature. I wondered, “why god, why has it to be my people for years and years?”

On seeing women activists leading the relief vans, District Officials and Police force, villagers were extremely happy and sigh of relief could be seen in their eyes and similarly we could realize their agony and helplessness in dealing with the crisis. There was an instinctive understanding and a deeper connection that these villagers shared with women in our group, almost like mother-child relationship, which perhaps was beyond the comprehension of men like us. There was only one prayer on everyone’s lips “Oh God give them the Courage to fight”.There was one thing which was clear to us. The people whom we met were not taking the relief materials out of their choice, rather it was because of the circumstances that they were bound to accept help and aid from people. There was a look of suspicion and in fact hatred initially because it appears when a relief team reaches from the city that they are there to do ‘charity’ and not empathize with the condition of the affected.

At last the relief material were duly distributed and we came back home. The food we had packed as lunch remained untouched because we had seen much more than what we could absorb….

PRELUDE: This open letter was sent to me for review yesterday late at night by my student, Ajay, a team member of a group that we had — the ‘Creatineers’ . The letter intrigued me. I thought of sharingit with the readers of Iris and he immediately agreed. The letter, its views, its authorship and copyright belongs to Ajay. This weekend post that we have is a guest post from a member of the student community.

Hello Mr. Hazare,

I am another Indian who never saw you face to face. I got to know about you from newspapers, then I saw you on television and suddenly you just exploded. Everywhere there is Anna ado, people talking about you, claiming you as the next Gandhi, the only ideal Indian left in the nation …..blah blah…..You know even my mobile Inbox is flooded with messages to support you. My mother is not able to watch her daily soaps because my father keeps on swapping different news channels just to know what your next action would be.

I am a guy who has a girlfriend who keeps on annoying , who has sucking friends, who does Facebook for more than 5 hours a day, sms, chat, movies, partying, studies etc. Amid all this, do you really expect that I have time for politics and corruption kindaa stuff…I am 21 and I never voted and seriously I don’t have any faith in democracy. Yaar, I know not if everyone of them is corrupt but we all know that most of them are, then what’s the point voting. Leave it.

Anna but to me you are a potent guy, potent of changing things, I mean whole nation is with you, seriously there has to be something in you. You wear Gandhi topi and appear Ideal, to me you are a beacon of hope and triumph of change. Parties are accusing that you are corrupt …ooh my god they have a habit of saying it about every person who stands against them and they think people of India will believe them. I know you can never be corrupt…aah you heard that rhetoric “supremacy of parliament”. Parliament can never be above people, see people are there to support you, they are on roads, they have jammed traffic for you, whole Delhi is on march. Huhhh!!! and they still think that Parliament is superior, what do they think of themselves?? Do they think we are this dumb???

I need to calm down. It’s everywhere,it’s on Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Google +,you name it and we have it there. Even my status says “Anna tu hai aaj ka gandhi,tuney laayi jag me aandhi”..cool na??? hope you like this, it got more than 50 likes on facebook. Huhhh !! let’s end it all here, you are a leader, now one who is nationally renowned. This is the time when I should step out of my home to support you but look I’ve something important on Friday so I can’t. I am constantly supporting you online by sharing articles and info about you. It’s time that you sway in our lives like a paragon and wipe out all the woes.

Anna now you are India and India is Anna. I support you, country supports you, media is with us leaving everything else. It’s been 11 days since you are fasting,I believe that there is something divine in you that is holding you. Indians are crazy about messiahs — we are not confident of our capacities. We die in the hands of terrorists, we party, we earn Rs.80 per day — but who says we can fight our own conscience and the corruption within us and become heroes ourselves. We need gods and heroes to save us. We have waited enough for messiahs — we can’t fast ourselves, so we need you to fast for us. The real Mr. India, in this battle of right against might ,we rely on you .Go on, Go Anna.

Anna, please break your fast because I can’t fast with you — feel hungry often and need ‘breakfast’.

The article that follows has been contributed by Sri Lankan scholar-writer-art historian, Dr. Sinharaja Tammita Delgoda. Dr. Delgoda has traveled and written extensively on Sri Lanka and India. His well-known works include: A Traveller’s History of India and Selwood Nuwara Eliya And The Story Of An English Cottage.

In 2003 he was commissioned by the late Foreign Minister Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar to produce a work on eminent Sri Lankan contemporary artist Stanley Kirinde, which would also represent the heritage, landscape and culture of Sri Lanka to the outside world. This work, The World of Stanley Kirinde (2005) was followed by a study of 18th century Sinhalese art, entitled Ridi Vihare. The Flowering of Kandyan Art (2007). His most recent publication is Eloquence in Stone. The Lithic Saga of Sri Lanka (2008).

The article is published here with the permission of the author.

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in the article are those of the author. Iris does not hold responsibility of the views expressed herein.

By Dr. SinhaRaja Tammita-Delgoda

The entrance to Kilinochchi Maha Vidyalayam (Kilinochchi High School) is dominated by a large map. Although it is actually a map of Sri Lanka, most of it is blank. One section however, is clear and sharply defined in bright red. Stretching all the way down from the top, it occupies the entire north of the island, snaking down on either side. On the west coast it touches the outskirts of the capital Colombo; on the east, it reaches right down to the deep south. All in all, the red areas encompass more than one third of the entire landmass and almost two thirds of the coastline.

The rest of the country however, does not exist. An empty space in washed out blue, it is barely distinct from the surrounding ocean. The map is entitled “Our Country. Tamil Eelam.” Every day, every student entering and leaving the school would have to file past this map. This was all they knew of Sri Lanka. Recently however, the map has been slighted amended. At the very heart of the blank space, daubed in big letters, are the words “SL ARMY.”

Upstairs the class rooms are bright and airy, painted in pretty pastel colours. In one particular room the letters on the blackboard tell us that on the 26th September 2008, 6 boys and 12 girls, 18 in all, sat down for their final class. The wall beside was marked “Grade 12 A”-everyone in this class would have been between 17-18 years old. As they sat down for their studies, their eyes would have been drawn to the pictures above the board. However there are no maps, diagrams, or even cricketers to be seen. Only a line of posters.

The first is a picture of a portly figure in a business suit, Anton Balasingham, the foreign spokesman of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE). The face and voice of Tamil Eelam abroad, internationally Balasingham was perhaps the most well known of the Tamil hierarchy. Next to the timetable, is a portrait of a man in uniform. It is a rare picture of the leader of the LTTE’s Political Wing, the ever smiling Tamilchelvam. Everything is in Tamil, the only link with the outside world is a yellow Bank of Ceylon calendar. The calendar’s photographs highlight some of Sri Lanka’s most famous archaeological sites, Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Yapahuva. Printed in all three national languages, first English, then Tamil and finally Sinhala, it is the only reminder that Kilinochchi is a part of Sri Lanka.

For more than a decade Kilinochchi was the capital of Tamil Eelam, a separate Tamil state in the heart of Sri Lanka. Its creators and self styled guardians were the Tamil Tigers, the world’s most ruthless and most formidable terrorists. Here the Tigers held absolute sway, controlling every aspect of the administration and ruling the lives of the people. In early 2009 however, Kilinochchi was finally recaptured by the Sri Lanka army. For both the LTTE and the people of Tamil Eelam, Kilinochchi had been the lynchpin of a way of life; the fall of the capital sounded its deathknell.

Although the town was only finally taken towards the end of January 2009, the letters on the blackboard tell us for that the students of Grade 12 A, their lives had stopped nearly four months earlier.

* * * * * * *

KN. Murugananda Maha Vidyalayam lies several miles outside Kilinochchi, amidst rolling paddyfields and thorny lines of palmyrah trees. As the afternoon sun starts to set, its burning glow begins to soften, bathing the building in golden light. The same map is prominently displayed here and it is clearly visible from the roadside. Positioned above it is a large blue sign. It advertises TheBank of Tamil Eelam School Savings Unit. Everybody entering through this way has to pass under this sign.

Built in the shape of the letter “L” around a large green park, the main section is rather beautiful. On one side the corridors are framed by a line of blooming temple trees. As you walk down the narrow spaces, white flowers blow across your face. Set into the wall is a plaque erected during the ceasefire period, dated 9th July 2003.

“Funded by the Government of Sri Lanka

Asian Development Bank

Germany (GTZ)

Government of Netherlands

Opec Fund”

The first room on the left is a clutter of jumbled chairs and tables. This was where the teachers would gather, to gossip, complain and pass the time of day. The blackboard here is mostly blank, with scrubbed out scrawlings here and there. Large English letters in the middle of the board proclaim its function, “STAFROOM”. Tucked away in a corner of the blackboard is another, smaller inscription in Tamil, “Defeat Leads to Victory.”

On the walls above are posters of men in striped uniforms. One commemorates Captain Lara Rangan, “who died in 1984 at the hands of the Sinhala army.” Another remembers the “Admired Servants of Tamil Eelam, Who Died for the Cause in 13 Years of War.” Most striking of all is a darkened, shadowy image honouring the Black Tigers. An élite unit dedicated to suicide bombing and martyrdom the Black Tigers were the LTTE’s most potent weapon and they are honoured as its most revered heroes. Known as “Maaveerar” or “Great Heroes, ” they are amongst the very few to have access to the Leader of Tamil Eelam, Velupillai Prabhakaran. They are so highly regarded that the Leader himself hosts a final meal with each and every Black Tiger, before they are sent out on their final mission. July 5th is Black Tiger Day and this poster celebrates Black Tiger Day 2007,

“See the Light from your Face,

Listen to the Sound of Your Deeds.

Remember the Black Tigers”

The posters range right across the wall, remembering other renowned figures-Colonel Devan, the local area commander and Sivakumaran, who became the first cadre to take cyanide when he was captured during a bank robbery.

Upstairs is an examination hall, where students sat for O Level Exams conducted by the government of Sri Lanka. Index numbers on the board – 82928916-82929351 announce the candidates sitting for subjects in the Tamil Medium, Papers I and II in Music and Papers I, II and III in the Arts. This classroom would have been occupied by Grade 10 students, children between the ages of 15-16. All these exams would have been conducted by Tamil teachers, working and teaching in Tamil; all of them government servants, drawing government salaries. It is one of the most extraordinary ironies of this long drawn out conflict.

“During the Ceasefire time the LTTE visited our school. They were at every cultural occasion, sports event and every prize giving.” The speaker was a young cadre who had just defected. His eyes were haunted. Taut and nervous, he leaned forward as he spoke. Holding himself together, he looked intensely into our eyes, lost and now confused. Like all his fellows he had grown up under the LTTE, he believed in them and in their success.

The warm afternoon breeze sweeps through the building. As it gathers strength, nearby trees sway gently to and fro. Leaves dance in the wind, their shadows creeping up the walls. Pieces of paper fly slowly across the room. At our feet, the wind rustles the pages of a book. The book has a shiny blue cover. It is the school souvenir for 2003, the KN. Murugananda Maha Vidyalayam Prize Giving Issue, printed at the St. Joseph’s Catholic Press in Jaffna. Almost entirely in Tamil, it opens with a message in English from a Tamil government officer, K.M. Pathmanathan, the Deputy Director of Education-Planning, from the Zonal Education Office

“This school has a long tradition and it has set an example in

developing a child friendly environment. This has been achieved by the dedicated service of the Principals and teachers who have served this school.”

On page 28 are three colour photographs, congratulating the Best All Round Students of 2003. On the opposite page is a series of verses. At the very bottom of the page is a saying.

“More dangerous than the Enemy

Is the Traitor”

National Leader of Tamil Eelam

Disclaimer: The views/opinions expressed in the article are those of the author. Iris does not hold responsibility of the views expressed herein.

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